It was way back in 1986 that Rajiv Gandhi had launched the Ganga Action Plan. But years later, after much water (sewage) and money has flowed down the river, it is as bad as it could get. Why are we failing and what needs to be done differently to clean this and many other rivers?

The outrage over the suspension of an official, Durga Shakti Nagpal, for simply doing her job—check illegal sand mining in the rivers of Uttar Pradesh—has highlighted a crucial issue. It is now evident that illegal mining of sand from rivers and beaches is rampant and the underbelly of this industry (I’m calling it industry for want of a better word) is powerful and connected. Worse still, all this is happening in violation of the orders of the apex court of the country.

The government seems to be succeeding in pushing through the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in Fatehabad district of Haryana. Much of the opposition seems to have melted away after the farmers affected by the project received compensation at the rate of Rs 46 lakh per acre (0.4 hectare) from the Haryana government.

The Public Hearing for the Haryana Atomic Power Project at Gorakhpur, Haryana, was held on July 17 in Gorakhpur village. The project concerns the construction of four nuclear power plants, in Gorakhpur Haryana, with a capacity of 700 mega watts (MW) each by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

New Delhi, February 4, 2009: The burgeoning compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) sector in India is faced with some key concerns, and the most critical of them is the problem of disposal of mercury used in CFLs: this was the consensus at a Round Table meeting on the sector, organised here today by the New Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).